Another researcher directed me to a speech given by John P. Alcock, the president of Friends of the Virginia State Archives, in 1999 titled "What Genealogists Should Know About 18th Century Virginia Law." The text of the speech can be found here: http://home.hiwaay.net/~woliver/Virginia_Law.html<http://home.hiwaay.net/%7Ewoliver/Virginia_Law.html>and makes for a pretty interesting read. In the speech, the author summarizes several points of Virginia law, among which: in 18th-Century Virginia a man needed to be be 21 to marry or to sign a bond - and signing a bond was necessary to act as guardian. I've had a marriage date of "c1700" for Alexander Younger and Rebecca Mills. Assuming that Mr. Alcock is correct, and based on our knowledge of Alexander's birthdate (1681), that would put his marriage date about 1702 at the earliest. Do we have anything documenting the 1700 date? This also means that, based on the date Thomas was granted guardianship of his siblings (1732), the latest he could have been born was 1711. I have two possible scenarios for Thomas' minimum birth year; both based on Alexander's estate: 1) Alexander's will names Rebecca and Thomas as executors. Thomas didn't serve - if that was because he wasn't old enough in 1727, then the earliest he could have been born was 1706. 2) Alexander's will also states that "it is my will that the boys should be for themselves at the age of seventeen years old." If we assume that he was referring to all three of his boys (Thomas, John and James) then, based on the date Alexander's will was written (1725), Thomas had to be born after 1708. Some of you have been working on this for a while ... what do you think?